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Improving Child Abuse Reporting and Treatment for Military Families

Date:

As recently as 2014, the U.S. military reported rates of child abuse and neglect that were 45 percent lower than those of the general population. However, recent PolicyLab research suggests that the U.S. Army may be unaware of a large proportion of child maltreatment cases among its families because of a breakdown in communication between health care providers, state-based civilian Child Protective Services (CPS), and the military's welfare agency, the Family Advocacy Program (FAP).

In this policy brief, we explain the potential reasons for incomplete reporting to FAP, as well as provide recommendations to improve reporting practices.